Faults:

Has anyone ever heard of the bonnet catch seizing up and the bonnet flying up??? My husband was out early in the morning of last week, and doing between 65-70 miles an hour on the middle lane of the M60; his catch failed on the bonnet and the bonnet flew up in a second and completely blanked out his vision, almost killing him.

We have had two Puntos and this has never happened before. Is this a manufacturer fault???

General Comments:

A1 little runner, and gets into the tightest spaces, so cheap and economical.

Down side. Aren't any except for this bonnet catch, was very nearly deadly.

Faults:

Fault in gear box.

General Comments:

This is second Punto I have had. The first developed a cracked cylinder head after 4 years, and this one gearbox failure. Nice to drive, but doesn't last more than 4 years.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

We have the 1995 Punto and this 1999 model, face lifted in 2003. I must say I still prefer the old model; it´s really perfect and I´ve done 150000km without one single problem.

As far as the new Punto is concerned, it´s still the good old Punto; economical, incredibly spacious, well designed and very comfortable.

However, driving is a bit less fun due to more limited performance; the new Punto consumes less fuel and makes less noise, but all this cost speed and agility.

Overall, a very nice car and well built too, so I hope it lasts 13 years without problems like my other Punto.

Faults:

Nothing seriously wrong with this car; noisy front brakes, even though they have been replaced. No major faults.

General Comments:

Comfort is a big issue, very uncomfortable on long journeys, and lacks a lot of refinement.

The vehicle is very high sided, and suffers a lot from cross winds on the motorway.

Load space is good, we do a lot of camping and I was surprised how much you can load into the car, especially when coming down to a Punto from a Peugeot 406 estate.

The car is also let down by its top speed and acceleration, and feels really out of place in the outside lane of the motorway.

We've had the car for 6 months, and we are now looking to change it for something a little more refined.

Faults:

Passenger door has seized twice.

Reverse gear sometimes hard to get.

Rattles and squeaks aplenty!

Paint stone chips very easily.

General Comments:

The Punto is very nippy for a 1.2 and cruises on the motorway easily.

Generally I am very happy with the car, I just wish that the dealer would sort out the few niggly problems with it. I am about to return the car for a second time concerning the door.

It's still a great looking car, in my opinion more practical than a Vauxhall Corsa or Peugeot 206 due to the shape of the car and the large boot space.